|Publication number||US7886337 B2|
|Application number||US 10/690,860|
|Publication date||Feb 8, 2011|
|Priority date||Oct 22, 2003|
|Also published as||US20050091498|
|Publication number||10690860, 690860, US 7886337 B2, US 7886337B2, US-B2-7886337, US7886337 B2, US7886337B2|
|Inventors||Ian M. Williams, Michael B. Diamond|
|Original Assignee||Nvidia Corporation|
|Export Citation||BiBTeX, EndNote, RefMan|
|Patent Citations (14), Non-Patent Citations (2), Referenced by (5), Classifications (34), Legal Events (3)|
|External Links: USPTO, USPTO Assignment, Espacenet|
One or more aspects of the invention relate generally to protection of content, and more particularly to a content protection environment.
Content protection may be cryptographically based or signal-processing based or a combination thereof. Generally, cryptographically-based content protection is applied to the digital domain, while signal-processing based content protection is applied to the analog domain.
There are many examples of cryptographically-based content protection in use today. Digital video discs (“DVDs”) use a Content Scrambling System (“CSS”) that requires a 40-bit long key to decipher the encrypted content. Content Protection for Recordable Media (“CPRM”) is a broadcast encryption technology applied to physical media, where a media key block is prerecorded on blank media. Content Protection for Pre-recorded Media, a variant of CPRM, is used to protect DVD Audio formatted discs. CPRM is also used to protect content stored in Secure Digital Memory Cards, Secure CompactFlash, the IBM MicroDrive, and DVD video recorders.
More recent developments include Digital Transmission Content Protection (“DTCP”), a public-key technology applied to a digital bus, such as a Universal Serial Bus (“USB”) and an Institute of Electronic and Electrical Engineers (“IEEE”) 1394 bus (“Firewire”). High Definition Content Protection (“HDCP”) has been proposed to protect content transferred from a Digital Video Interface (“DVI”) (a digital video interface to a high-definition monitor/television). HDCP expands on authentication of DTCP to establish a session key used to encrypt video data.
In the software arena, content protection includes cryptographic switching (“cryptoswitch”) and digital signets technologies. Cryptoswitch involves only having a small portion of a program in the clear for runtime, and leaving the remainder encrypted. Signets are used to detect unauthorized modification of a program.
The standards bodies of Digital Video Broadcast and TV Anytime have considered proposals for content protection in home networks, such as SmartRight, Open Conditional Content Access Management (“OCCAM”) and xCP Cluster Protocol. Other network or system level approaches include Broadcast Flag, Content Protection System Architecture (“CPSA”) and Digital-Rights Management (“DRM”) systems. In Broadcast Flag, a bit is set to indicate content is not to be distributed over the Internet, and otherwise the content is protected by DTCP and CPRM. CPSA is another architecture describing how, DTCP and CPRM fit together along with watermarking, using interlocking licenses. DRM systems use the Internet to distribute keys for decryption through a clearing house.
In the signal-processing based content protection arena, an out-of-specification television signal, not detectible by a television, but detectable by most video recorders is used. Also, digital watermarking for copy control, whether record control or playback control, is used. Pattern recognition (“fingerprinting”) is being considered. However, recognition is a statistical process, which by definition, is inexact. A library of content needing to be interrogated would be significantly large, for example for broadcast monitoring. Accordingly, watermarking is presently more favored for identification purposes.
Because of the many ways that content may be copied, displayed and distributed, no one technology is a complete solution to protecting content within all of these possible contexts. Accordingly, technology that advances the interests of a content protection environment is desirable and useful.
An aspect of the invention is a method for protecting digital content. The digital content is provided to a graphics processor. A portion of the frames of the digital content is altered at least approximately contemporaneous with recording within the graphics processor responsive to tags in a data stream provided thereto, where alteration of the portion of the frames of the digital content is not visually perceptible for real-time display but is visually perceptible in recorded version thereof.
An aspect of the invention is a device for protecting digital content, comprising a graphics processor configured to detect tags in a data stream and to associate the tags detected with commands for altering image content.
An aspect of the invention is digital video content, comprising: tags for altering frames by a graphics processor.
Accompanying drawing(s) show exemplary embodiment(s) in accordance with one or more aspects of the invention; however, the accompanying drawing(s) should not be taken to limit the invention to the embodiment(s) shown, but are for explanation and understanding only.
The description that follows is directed to image cloaking and watermarking for a content protection environment or an enhanced content protection environment. The image cloaking may be embedded in the content itself, the recording device, the driver software, or the hardware, or any combination of one or more of the above. Content is cloaked without disturbing the viewing experience for authorized users. A rendering unit (“RU”) is used to process video data to provide image cloaking. Examples of rendering units include graphics processing units (GPU) and video processing units (VPU).
Prior to a detailed description the above-mentioned RUs, a pictorial description of results from such RUs is provided for clarity.
Thus, it should be appreciated that image processing may include adulteration of source material by one or more of the following: insertion of one or more objects that are not part of the source material, movement of one or more inserted objects that are not part of the source material, movement of one or more objects that are part of the source material, removal (“cloaking”) of one or more objects of the source material. Additionally, a RU, responsive to detected watermarking of source material or requesting of key for the source material, may invoke adulteration unless a proper response is provided. It should be appreciated that prior attempts at cloaking video have involved prerecorded changes. Prerecorded changes are more easily defeated than real-time randomly imposed changes to source material.
Action table 704 may be a lookup table with tags and associated commands. Thus, a detected tag may be used to find an associated command in action table 704. Tags and associated commands may be predefined as part of video protection system 700, or, alternatively or in combination, tags and associated commands may be selected and programmed into action table 704.
A found command (“tagged command”) in action table 704 may then optionally be provided to a randomizer, to randomly apply ignore or send a received tagged command to buffer 702. A randomizer may be used for difficulty in filtering out video display results associated with tagged commands, as well as for reducing possibility of negatively impacting viewing of video display results. Randomizer 705 may include a random number generator. Alternatively, randomizer 705 may include a counter, for example to count each watermark tag, or command therefor, and to insert watermarks after each count of some number of such watermark tags or to alter the image content responsive to watermark count. Furthermore, in response to detection of one or some number of watermark tags, a GUI may be invoked for a user to enter a key. For example,
Buffer 702 stores data and associated command information, and thus tagged commands may be stored back in the same association in which the tags for the tagged commands were received.
Tagged commands associated with texture may include blending commands for cloaking image content or blocking commands for inserting image content, such as an image overlay or underlay. Thus, for example, both blending and blocking may be used simultaneously with respect to the same frame of image content.
Tagged commands for blocking may obtain predefined textures from a separate over/underlay memory 706, which in response may provide a selected overlay/underlay to buffer 702 for temporary storage, or optionally directly to graphics pipeline 600, such as for texture memory 607 of
Accordingly, it should be understood that image content may be inserted, deleted and modified. Furthermore, it is not necessary that insertions be added into image content, but may be inserted into a vertical blanking interval.
Cloaking is done using tags inserted into a command/data stream. Each tag indicates a starting and ending location. For example, a starting and ending vertex may be identified. Also, by way of example, a starting and ending texel may be identified. It is not necessary to explicitly identify an ending location. For example, a starting vertex of a tri-strip may be identified, and a set number of triangles may be set for cloaking starting from that starting vertex.
Furthermore, this technology may be used for affecting visual content to display image content with different ratings. For example, an R rated movie due to nudity, may be displayed as a PG movie without nudity by adding cloaking responsive to tagging the image content. This type of cloaking may involve adding image content for blocking nudity, or may involve distorting image content, such as use of a magnified portion of the image to blur a pixel (“pixelation”).
Additionally, tags may be used to set the refresh rate. By varying the refresh rate, unauthorized copiers would get a distorted copy.
Notably, tags do not need to be explicitly identified. Tags may be particular vertices or a combination of multiple vertices. For example, if two, or some other number greater than two, vertices in a row have a particular dot product value, that value may be used as a tag. There may be one or more values that are used as tags. Accordingly, a tag detector for this example would take dot products and compare them bitwise to one or more dot product tags. Additionally, a particular geometry may be tagged, such as a body part of a character, for cloaking, and such geometry could be cloaked responsive. Furthermore, it may be one polygon that is used to provide a tag. Moreover, it may be a plurality of vertices of a plurality of associated polygons not necessarily connected to one another that are used to provide a tag.
Furthermore, for three dimensional renderings, each display list may be identified for cloaking or no cloaking of image content. Thus, a tag may be used to indicate which display lists will be cloaked.
Furthermore, it should be appreciated that image content is includes video or graphically generated content, and is not limited to movies or other forms of moving pictures, but may include computer aided design content. Additionally, such content may be displayed without significantly impacting the viewing experience, while significantly impacting the viewing experience of unauthorized copies.
Another use for tags is to provide for one of a plurality of levels of image resolution. Thus, fully authorized use, would be a highest available resolution, where a less than fully authorized use would be for a down-sampled version of the highest available resolution for display device 810 coupled to image content protection system. Furthermore, unauthorized use, such as no encrypted tag to decrypt, may distort the viewing experience. For example, each frame location may be moved unless proper authorization is received.
Furthermore, content received having a watermark may be detected based on the watermark. Watermarked content may be down-sampled unless an authorization code is provided.
Accordingly, it should be appreciated that image data may be added, removed or modified to provide cloaked image content. One or more tags may be used on each frame to clock image data. To avoid significantly impacting authorized viewing experience, cloaked image content is done on only on selected objects of selected frames, which selection may be randomly imposed.
Additionally; forms of cloaking may be content provider specific. Action table 704 may further be indexed to content providers, such that a subset of all available cloaking applications is used.
Some embodiments of the present invention make use of key information to enable specific features.
While the foregoing describes exemplary embodiment(s) in accordance with one or more aspects of the invention, other and further embodiment(s) in accordance with the one or more aspects of the invention may be devised without departing from the scope thereof, which is determined by the claim(s) that follow and equivalents thereof. Claim(s) listing steps do not imply any order of the steps. Trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
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|U.S. Classification||726/2, 348/461, 348/467|
|International Classification||H04N5/445, H04N5/85, H04L9/00, H04N5/77, H04N5/907, H04N5/913, G11B20/00|
|Cooperative Classification||H04N21/4405, H04N2005/91364, G11B20/00826, H04N21/8358, G11B20/00884, H04N5/85, H04N5/445, H04N5/907, H04N21/4318, H04N21/42653, G11B20/00086, H04N21/41415, H04N21/440254, H04N5/772, H04N2005/91392, H04N5/913, H04N2005/91385, H04N21/8453, H04N2005/91357, H04N2005/91335|
|European Classification||H04N5/913, G11B20/00P, G11B20/00P11C1, G11B20/00P14|
|Oct 22, 2003||AS||Assignment|
Owner name: NVIDIA CORPORATION, CALIFORNIA
Free format text: ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST;ASSIGNORS:WILLIAMS, IAN M.;DIAMOND, MICHAEL B.;REEL/FRAME:014633/0166
Effective date: 20031017
|Dec 13, 2010||AS||Assignment|
Owner name: ALL-LUMINUM PRODUCTS, INC. DBA RIO BRANDS, INC., P
Free format text: ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST;ASSIGNOR:COHEN, WARREN;REEL/FRAME:025476/0287
Effective date: 20101206
|Jul 9, 2014||FPAY||Fee payment|
Year of fee payment: 4